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Tulsa, here I come!

Today, Bethany and I are headed to Tulsa, OK for a wedding I will be officiating. I am excited to be a part of the marriage of Dusty and Kelsey. It will be good to see people again from Iola where I previously served as associate pastor.

I am also looking forward to a weekend away with my bride. During my sabbatical, I had wanted to get away for a weekend with Bethany, but due to a long vacation and other trips, that did not happen. I cannot wait for some date nights and time to talk and enjoy one another without the distractions of work and kids.

I recently finished reading Prodigal Church by Jared C. Wilson. It was a book that resonated with me because of how we do church. Wilson does a great job of explaining just because it works and is growing does not mean it is healthy. Many will disagree with Wilson, but I agree with much in this book. Below you find several of the quotes that connected with me.
What we see happening most often is that a Christian bored or unsatisfied with the goods and services at his church goes to the more attractive church...but five to six years later they become dissatisfied with that experience and are ready to go find another.
The ends don't justify the means.
What drives the way we do church. Often they are built on these functional ideologies: pragmatism and consumerism...Pragmatism is anti-gospel...Pragmatism is legalistic...it functions in law mode.
We must have a stronger faith, to trust that a sermon mainly about Jesus will "help people grow" more than our set of tips wi…

I sent R.J. some questions about his new book, Reading Romans. Book releases tomorrow and there is a link to purchase below. Here are his responses:

What is it about Martin Luther that intrigues you? Why focus on
him?

Martin Luther is a theologian that changed the history of the Christian
Church. In a day and age when people couldn’t read the Bible in their own
language, they thought grace had to be earned, and certain work was considered
more sacred than other work. Luther unlocked something that had been lost.
In our own day and age, grace is routinely overlooked as the message of the
Church. Instead it gets replaced with a message of “do more, try harder.” God’s
scandalous grace while not being earned by indulgences is often treated as
though we earn it. If you had to list the top 3 things about God or faith that Luther helps you
understand, what would they be?
The top 3 things that Luther has helped me understand have been the
distinction between Law and Gospel, the doctr…